Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the appointment of a Quebec judge to the Supreme Court of Canada on Tuesday, three months after the top court rejected his previous appointment of Marc Nadon.

Mr. Harper appointed Clement Gascon, who has served on the Quebec Court of Appeal since 2012, and the Quebec Superior Court for a decade before that.

The seat, one of three Supreme Court seats reserved for Quebec, has been vacant since the retirement last summer of Justice Morris Fish.

“Mr. Justice Gascon’s wealth of legal knowledge and experience will be of significant benefit to this important Canadian institution,” Mr. Harper said in a statement. “His appointment is the result of broad consultations with prominent members of the Quebec legal community.”

Judge Gascon spent 10 years as a member of the Quebec Superior Court before joining the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2012. He is a specialist in civil and commercial litigation and has lectured extensively in business and labour law in Quebec.

Quebec Justice Minister Stephanie Vallée welcomed the appointment.

“An eminent jurist,” she said. “I’m very happy to see that Quebec finally has its third justice on the bench.”

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Nathalie Des Rosiers, dean of the common law section of Ottawa University’s faculty of law, who was called to the Quebec bar with Judge Gascon in 1982, said he previously had a successful commercial law practice, arguing cases on behalf of employers.

“He is component, dedicated and a hard worker. He is a very efficient guy, very practical minded,” she said.

“He is on the more conservative side … but it’s not obvious, he does not wear it in definite way.”

In March, the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Harper’s appointment of Judge Nadon, a Federal Court of Appeal Justice, to a seat reserved for Quebec jurists on the top court was unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court determined that though Judge Nadon had been a member of the Quebec bar for two decades before becoming a federal judge, he was disqualified by the fact he was not a member of the bar when Harper appointed him.

Judge Gascon’s appointment is effective June 9.

The prime minister had put Judge Nadon’s name to an all-party committee which considered his name under an oath of secrecy, but this time avoided that process.

“As we are concerned about recent leaks from what was intended to be a confidential process, we are reviewing the process for future appointments,” Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald said. He also said the Liberals and the opposition New Democrats had repeatedly called for the seat to be filled quickly.

Opposition parties have said it was the government and not their members who violated the confidentiality of the process surrounding Judge Nadon, by stating publicly what the opposition members’ positions had been on his appointment.

NDP justice critic Françoise Boivin said Judge Gascon has a “stellar reputation” and that he was a “great nomination” for the high court.

“My only maybe downer on it is that it’s not a woman and we need to get as close as possible to gender parity on the Supreme Court,” Ms. Boivin said.

‘He is on the more conservative side … but it’s not obvious, he does not wear it in definite way’

Ms. Boivin said she has no concerns about a lack of any confirmation hearing, a process the Conservatives established that gives MPs their only chance to question Supreme Court justices about their legal background.

“It would be kind of disappointing on that end, but it’s not an exercise that has any bearing,” Ms. Boivin said, referring to the hearings for Judge Nadon.

Ms. Boivin said she likes the vetting process, but it may be worth forgoing given Fish retired last summer.

“I think we can pass go, collect $200 – we need a judge from Quebec, stat.”

Mr. Harper will have one more Quebec vacancy on the Supreme Court to fill on Nov. 30 when Justice Louis LeBel steps down at the age of 75, after nearly 15 years on the high court.

National Post, with Reuters, Postmedia News and The Canadian Press

GASCON’S BIOGRAPHY FROM THE QUEBEC COURT OF APPEAL

Born in Montreal on February 5, 1960, he is the son of Dr. Bernard Gascon, m.d., and Denyse Clément. He is a graduate of Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf (D.E.C. 1978) and of McGill University (B.C.L. 1981).

Admitted to the Bar of Quebec in 1982, he spent 21 years with the Montreal law firm of Heenan Blaikie, specializing in civil and commercial litigation.

During his lawyer career, he was a lecturer in business law, in labour law and in construction law at the CEGEP of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, at the Département des sciences comptables of UQAM, at McGill University and at the Bar of Quebec. He was also co-author of many books, publications and articles on the individual contract of employment, notably with respect to the termination of employment, restrictive covenants, fiduciary duty and unfair competition.

He was appointed to the Quebec Superior Court in October 2002. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Commercial Division (the “Chambre Commerciale”) of the Montreal Superior Court, which is responsible for all commercial matters cases, ranging from CCAA proceedings to insolvency proceedings and shareholders’ disputes. From September 2008 to September 2011, he assumed the role of coordinating judge of that Division. From 2007 to 2010, he was also the representative of the Superior Court on the Canadian Bar Association, Quebec Division, committee on class actions. He assumed a similar role on the working group created to study the U.S.-Canada Cross-Border Class Action Protocols.

Since 2008, he is the co-chair of the annual Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice Judgment Writing Seminar for newly-appointed federal judges. He frequently participates as speaker in continuing legal education seminars on commercial matters, judgment writing and class actions.